BARNACLES 221 



CHAPTEK XII 



BARNACLES 



YOU cannot have wandered among the rocks on our 

 southern or western coasts, when the tide is out, 

 without having observed that their whole surface, 

 up to a certain level (often very precisely defined), is 

 roughened with an innumerable multitude of little brown- 

 ish cones. If you have ever thought it worth while to 

 examine them with more care, you have seen that, crowded 

 as they are, so thickly that frequently they crush each 

 other out of their proper form and proportions, they are 

 all constructed on the same model. Each cone is seen to 

 be a little castle, built up of stony plates that lean toward 

 each other, but which leave an orifice at the top. Within 

 this opening, provided the castle be tenanted by a living 

 inhabitant, you see two or three other pieces joined to- 

 gether in a peculiar manner, which are capable of separat- 

 ing, but which, when brought together, effectually close 

 up all ingress. 



Perhaps you have never pushed your investigations 

 further than this, having a courteous respect for the feel- 

 ings of the inmate, which has prevented your intruding on 

 a privacy so recluse. But I have been less considerate; 

 many a time have I applied the steel chisel and hammer 

 to the solid rock, and having cut off some projecting piece 

 or angle, have transferred it, all covered with its stony 

 cones, to the interior of a glass tank of sea- water, for 



